I watch as this girl's blue and vibrant eyes go dark and far away and I find myself becoming angrier and angrier at the fact that someone could do this. I hear more gun shots and that awakens me to the promise I just made, a promise I cannot break. I lean my face into the girls dark hair and breathe in her scent in the hopes that I can find something similar to it somewhere around the house. I let her go gently and rest her on the ground in her final resting place; I can't believe more people have to die here.

I stand on to my feet and pick up the gun one of the men I killed held, knowing I'd be better off protecting myself from a distance than up close. I walk out of the room and take a deep breath but all I can smell is human blood mixed with vampire. For a second I worry that Godric is in danger but I know if he were I would feel it. I take another deep breath and still there is nothing but I know if he isn't in the cellar than he must be where the beautiful women were forced to live. I quickly move up the floors and find myself in the long hallway I never was allowed to enter and I smell something scary.

Dead vampire.

I push open the door to one of the rooms and see fresh vampire blood spread across the entire place. It dawns on me then why the beautiful women were so beautiful. They were all vampires. But if they were vampires why would these men kill them? If they were vampires how could these men keep them captive? I look to the floor and see silver chains that must have kept them in place. How could this happen?

There is a breath behind me and I drop to the floor and spin, feeling the wooden bullet zoom just over my head. I shoot the gun and hit the two men in the heart as they have hit my friend. They don't explode but they do fall to the ground and I know they are dead. I hold my breath for a moment and freeze. Something tells me there is another person watching me but I can't tell where. I cast my gaze around the entire hallway and even up on the ceiling to double check there is no one waiting for me up there. Nothing.

I'm about to give up when my eyes catch a hauntingly familiar blue pair staring through a crack in the door at the end of the hallway. I hear the faintest gasp and the eyes are whipped away and I hear a body fall against the wall as darker ones peak out before locking it. I feel a crazy kind of rage fill me and though I know I should hide I need to get to the bottom of this. I'm at the door in seconds and I push it open with little effort of unlocking the door. I scan inside and see that it is a large study where many terrible decisions must have been made. Behind a large desk sits a row of monitors that display every angle of the house and all the death that is going on inside. This room must belong to the man in charge.

I look to my left and see a small boy all skin and bones watching me behind a curtain of dark hair. I take a whiff and smell the familiar scent of the girl but it is very weak, this poor boy must not have been fed. I step far to my right in time to watch an axe get lodged into the desk with a large older man holding it. I pick him up and throw him backwards through the door.

He won't be a problem anymore.

I step forward to the boy that can't be more than fourteen years old but he cringes backward and it is then that I see the abuse on his skin and the rags on his bone. I shiver, thinking of Godric and how this boy must have suffered a similar fate to the vampire I love. I put my hands out in front of me and in a quiet and calm voice I whisper, "My name's Amie...I'm here to help you. What's your name?"

His head peaks up slightly to observe my face through his hair and I can see in these long seconds he is deciding whether he should believe me or not. I drop my hands slowly and he reaches his hand along the wall to give himself support. I smell rot in his movements and I can see by the way he cradles his arm that it is broken and healing in all the wrong ways but still he answers in a stronger voice than I imagined, "Bernard..."

A smile forms on my lips as I repeat the name, "Bernard...that's a handsome name."

He doesn't respond to my statement but instead he steps a little closer and observes me in the light of the moon coming in from the large window at our right. I make sure to stay still, knowing that any sudden movement would frighten him. His eyes shoot to behind me and I turn around quickly in case he sees something I don't but there is no one. His voice catches my attention, "Why do you want to help me?"

"I was forced to stay here once too. I tried to escape but the men came and killed all the girls that tried to leave with me. I would have died to if I hadn't been rescued," I answer honestly, wanting to make a bond with this boy so that he can willingly drink my blood to heal his arm.

"Rescue?" He repeats the word before looking to me, "You have to save my sister."

I shake my head with tearing eyes, "I tried but it was too late for her. She told me to come and save you."

"Are you a vampire?" He asks suddenly, Seeming to gain more courage the more I speak to him and not bothering to mourn her death just yet.

I nod my head, "Yeah...your arm looks in terrible condition. If you'd like you can drink some of my blood and it should heal up quickly."

He flinches slightly at the suggestion but his own movement causes him pain. I cringe at the sight. He shakes his head, "I've seen what vampire blood does to people. I don't wanna become that."

"It's different when I give it to you, I think. When other people take it affects them negatively but if I give it to you it will heal you," I don't know if what I'm saying is true but all I can think of is Randy and when he drank my blood how he begs to heal before it was too late.

He doesn't move but I can see in his eyes in a desperate deliberation. That is until he nods, "Okay. That makes sense."

I lower my head and pop my fangs out so I can cut my wrist and blood begins to flow. He steps forward and joins me by the window and I offer my wrist to him. He takes it and begins to put it in his mouth and already I see his arm get better and for some odd reason I hear his heartbeat a thousand times louder and I can sense his fear and anxiety and the pain that is more emotional than physical at this point. I close my eyes as he drinks and before I can tell him to wait he stops and I can feel a surge of we energy inside of him.

"Thank you," he says and I open my eyes to watch him flex his arm.

I look down at him-since he is a few inches shorter than me and a lot smaller than me because of his malnutrition-and smile, "Your wel-"

I hear the noise before I feel the pain and I am flying through the window when it hits me-the agony. I hit the snow bank hard and sink into it. I feel my body mangled in the cold and I don't know which hurts more-the shot gun blast or how rapidly my body heals.

I hear far away Godric's voice calling to me, "AMIENA!"

And I reply breathlessly, "Godric."

"A-A..."

I whip my head in painful shock and see Bernard in the snow with his own body torn to bits but without the luxury of certain recovery. I think of Randy. I think of every time I've been too late. I rush to him despite my pain and I feel him shaking and shivering and I wrap my arms around him and hold him against me inside the fur coat. I move to open my wrists again but I know I'm running out of time. I think of the eyes that match the ones looking at me now and the promise I made to save this boy and I know I have to do anything.

I take a deep breath and sink my fangs into his neck and drink his diminishing blood until there is just a few drops left; but those drops easily can leave through his open wounds. I cut my wrist open and press the blood to his lips that hang lifeless around his mouth and I beg, "Drink! Drink now!"

There is a second of hesitation and I begin to cry out at the thought that I am too late again. But then he opens his mouth and he begins to suck and I am filled with new joy...until I see Godric standing before me. And he does not look pleased.